Aggies and aquariums…

"Don't paint your bodies with your food!"
-Mom

There are certain phrases that you don’t expect to hear when you sign up for having children, and “Don’t paint your bodies with your food” is definitely on the list.  The admonishment was well deserved however, and I have the evidence to prove it.

I have little to say about this next group of pictures, other than Kitty does not like babies laying on her, James thinks boxes are funny, and both the kids are fruit-aholics.

Aggie football started this week!  The kids got all dressed up and we had some fun teaching James the proper way to “Gig’em”.  The mojo worked and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie handedly one their opener against #9 South Carolina.

As Isla reaches her 1 month anniversary on  planet Earth, she’s beginning to spend more time on the play mat.  This has resulted in an entertainment opportunity for the kids although it usually ends up with Isla fussing and Ashlyn shoving a binky in her mouth.  Still, it’s good bonding time for the three kids so I won’t complain.

We took the kids to an aquarium this weekends to get them out of the house and educate them a little bit on what lives in the the ocean.  The kids had a lot of fun with it, they especially liked the parts where you can stand on top of the glass and look down into the water.  Ashlyn also had a lot of fun in the play area, which was a special thing because it was the first time she ran up and down to the top floor of a play area.  In the past she’s been too shy to do it and it looks like she’s get braver as she gets older.  James was too small to climb up to the top, but that didn’t stop him from having fun on the bottom floor.

Babies, grandparents, and corn on the cob…

"If you want to do really important things in life and big things in life, you can't do anything by yourself. And your best teams are your friends and your siblings."
-Deepak Chopra

I expect the next few weeks worth of blog posts to be more pictures and less words, primarily because time and sleep are fleeting around here.

We haven’t seen any true regression yet from either kid, but that didn’t stop them from jumping in the baby seat and pretending to be the baby.

It’s hard to tell what’s going on as you look at these pictures of the kids eating corn on the cob.  Most people simply eat it, these kids look like they are attacking it.  I really don’t know what to tell you other than they really like corn on the cob.

The kids got to see all the grandparents this weekend, starting with PePa.  We ate breakfast, played outside, and Ashlyn helped make peanut butter cookies.

The kids swam in the morning and in the afternoon, despite the heat they were outside more than inside.

Grandma and Grandpa weren’t able to see the kids in person, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology they were able to chat with the kids on the tablet via Skype.  James loves Skype and always wants to chat with them on it.

Nina and Papa came came by in the evening and the kids had fun playing with the silly putty they brought over.

And after a fun weekend full of swimming, grandparents, and lots of baby diapers, it’s time to sleep.

Sleeping, puddles, and paper maché…

“Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs.  Dust, go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.”

It’s too bad that babies don’t stay in the sleeping stage for very long.  There really is nothing like a baby sleeping on you to bring the world into perspective.  We’ll get this for a few more weeks I suspect, at which point Isla will become more alert and interested in interacting with world.  That’s ok, we’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Ashlyn and James have stayed Ashlyn and James.  They’re quite the pair and it will be interesting to see how the dynamics of the group change when Isla gets older.  For now, they have the run of the house and they are taking advantage of it every chance they can get.

We had planned to visit Nina and Papa and do a little swimming on Sunday but the weather was not cooperative.  The kids still had a fun time, and the fun continued into the street when we had a slight delay in leaving thanks to a very insistent Isla demanding food.

Mom found an interesting shopping list that turns a Costco run into 20 slow cooker meals.  While we spent time preparing a month’s worth of feasts the kids went outside to find their own entertainment.  This turned out to be more dangerous than originally anticipated.  Apparently they thought it would be fun to turn James into a paper mache version of himself.

And this was taken while I was typing this blog post.  Good night little Isla.